HMCS DRUMHELLER (K167)

The History of the DRUMHELLER

Commissioned at Montreal on September 13, 1941, Drumheller arrived at Halifax on September 25. She joined Sydney Force in November after completing workups, but soon afterward transferred to Newfoundland Command, and left St. John's on December 11 to join her first convoy, SC.59, for Iceland. Drumheller was employed for two months on that convoy run, but on February 6, 1942, arrived at Londonderry - one of the first Canadian ships to do so. She left for St. John's the following week, but developed mechanical defects en route and returned to the U.K. to refit at Southampton. On completion of the repairs she arrived at Tobermory on March 22 to work up, resuming ocean escort service at the end of April as a member of EG C-2. She served with the group until April, 1944, with respite only from mid-November, 1943 to mid-January, 1944, while undergoing a refit, including fo'c's'le extension, at New York City. Her most hectic convoy was the combined ON.202/ONS.18 of September, 1943, which lost six merchant vessels and three escorts. On May 13, 1943, while escorting HX.237 she, HMS Lagan, and a Sunderland aircraft collaborated in sinking U 456. In April, 1944 Drumheller was allocated to Western Approaches Command, Greenock, for invasion duties, transferring in September to Portsmouth Command. She served with the latter until the end of the war, escorting convoys in U.K. coastal waters, and returned to Canada in mid-May, 1945. Paid off on July 11, 1945, at Sydney, she was broken up in 1949 at Hamilton, Ont.